I have lost the count, how many times this beast has killed me. 30, 50, 60... I'm not sure. I find too difficult to switch between the jugged ghost blade and the catalyst, or the shield with the Pyromancy hand during the panic of the battle, and to watch my health bar at the same time, and watch the spells counter, so that I switch to the next spell. lol I'm lv. 60 and rely very much on magic, so there aren't many things I can do now to change my tactics.

you can change your tactics! It sir, is not to late!!!!! Never change your shield from your shield. Just have your weapon be both catalyst and pyro flame and just go from there. You dont need to pay attention to your life bar as long as you just stay behind it and keep your shield up when he is going to attack as the splash AOE can hurt you otherwise. Spell caster or melee should never be a factor as staying behind something is how you win in this game. Just keep running in a circle around it so it cant just slam down ontop of you. When he is not attacking, cast a spell real quick then shield up till your next oppertunity. The Stray demon is considered a tutorial boss and should be thought of as a boss that will determine if you need to relearn the basics or just stop playing (Not trying to be mean but the boss is really simple if you just follow the basics and staying behind it.) When he floats up and spins around just run back a few steps then run around him with the shield up. chances are you will be hit by his wide swing but your shield should stop all damage.

I'd recommend Iron Flesh if you have the Pyromancy Hand. It can be extremely helpful when you just want to get up in a tough boss' face and do some damage, with the drawback of moving extremely slow. You can buy it from the same dude who gives you the Hand. You could also just ignore the Stray Demon, he isn't exactly main story stuff. That's what I ended up doing until near where I beat the game, then I just went back and tried a few times and got him.

@McShank said:

you can change your tactics! It sir, is not to late!!!!! Never change your shield from your shield. Just have your weapon be both catalyst and pyro flame and just go from there. You dont need to pay attention to your life bar as long as you just stay behind it and keep your shield up when he is going to attack as the splash AOE can hurt you otherwise. Spell caster or melee should never be a factor as staying behind something is how you win in this game. Just keep running in a circle around it so it cant just slam down ontop of you. When he is not attacking, cast a spell real quick then shield up till your next oppertunity. The Stray demon is considered a tutorial boss and should be thought of as a boss that will determine if you need to relearn the basics or just stop playing (Not trying to be mean but the boss is really simple if you just follow the basics and staying behind it.) When he floats up and spins around just run back a few steps then run around him with the shield up. chances are you will be hit by his wide swing but your shield should stop all damage.

Hey thanks! I will apply these tactics when I fight it again, when I recuperate that is, because it literally exhausted me. lol I will have always my shield on, no matter what, and on the right hand I'm thinking to keep only one school of magic, either fire, or soul arrows, not both, and in the second slot the ghost blade which does good damage (it needs three consecutive hits to make the demon bleed)

@Freddie_Bert said:

I'd recommend Iron Flesh if you have the Pyromancy Hand. It can be extremely helpful when you just want to get up in a tough boss' face and do some damage, with the drawback of moving extremely slow. You can buy it from the same dude who gives you the Hand. You could also just ignore the Stray Demon, he isn't exactly main story stuff. That's what I ended up doing until near where I beat the game, then I just went back and tried a few times and got him.

Thanks, I haven't thought of that, I have bought Iron Flesh but as you said it makes you slow, which puzzles me for this fight. I will give it a try though. Yeah, I can always skip the Stray demon, but for some reason I have taken it personally to beat it. lol This game is all about "battle for supremacy", and I'm into it, even though I suck for most of the time. lol

You have two options really

1. go full tank with Iron Flesh and a big shield and just stand in close, absorbing hits and doing continuous damage. Worth a try.
2. go commando - under 25% equip load so you're nimble. Forget your shield and double hand the ghost blade. Then stay behind him, doing slash damage until he flies up in the air. Do a double roll away, then get behind him once he's down. Then you can go in with either your blade or some of your pyromancy or spells, just stay behind as everyone says, and get the hell out of there when he flies up in the air.

Tip - if you can keep him on the little mound at the centre of the arena, his horizontal slashes will go over your head when you're on ground level.

@gerrid said:

You have two options really

1. go full tank with Iron Flesh and a big shield and just stand in close, absorbing hits and doing continuous damage. Worth a try.
2. go commando - under 25% equip load so you're nimble. Forget your shield and double hand the ghost blade. Then stay behind him, doing slash damage until he flies up in the air. Do a double roll away, then get behind him once he's down. Then you can go in with either your blade or some of your pyromancy or spells, just stay behind as everyone says, and get the hell out of there when he flies up in the air.

Tip - if you can keep him on the little mound at the centre of the arena, his horizontal slashes will go over your head when you're on ground level.

Thanks! Going melee all the way, holding the blade with both hands sounds interesting. So I will not have to worry for switching the spells.

Equip a weapon in both hands, run at his stomach and he will do one of two things.  He will fly up, preparing to slam down or he will do his cone AoE fire belch.  If he flys up, back away from him and when he lands and the shock wave clears get back into position at his stomach.  If he does his fire attack, roll between his legs and stand behind his tail.  Hit him when he is recovering from either move.
 
Practice that and you can beat him at starting level without getting hit.

The big problem with this boss is that he has so much health. Unless your weapons are beefed up then it's a total endurance run and you eventually start getting tired and you make mistakes. I got super discouraged when I fought him early on because I was chipping away so little damage even when two-handing my weapon I knew it was going to be like a 8 minute boss fight or something. I made a conscious choice to do what I enjoy the most about Souls games. Level up and come back to completely own stuff that was giving me trouble before. Super satisfying. Love killing those red caped undead knights because they used to be so hard for me and now they're a joke.

@Humanity: I know what you mean, there was a time I lost like 10k souls to those 3 ents in the clearing that ambush you in Darkroot, down the side of the Artorias seal on the way to the stone giants. They'd destroy my stamina and then one of them would jump on me and suck away my life as I was stunned. I hated those things.

Went back yesterday with my +15 Pyro flame and laid waste to them. So satisfying.

@ExplodeMode: Thanks! I feel super-confident now with all these tips. I will beat it! he he

@Humanity: That's what I love to do also in rpg. Return super-powerful and take my revenge on them. I used to do that in old Final Fantasy games. I remember in FF7 when I acquired the Knights of the Round materia + quadraple materia I swept everything in my way. lol In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night I also applied the same tactic. Even in Demon's Souls up to some point. But in Dark Souls this doesn't seem enough. I'm lv 60 but if I'm caught off guard, I can easily get killed even by mobs, frogs, rats, when being cornered.

@Rheinmetall said:

@Humanity: That's what I love to do also in rpg. Return super-powerful and take my revenge on them. I used to do that in old Final Fantasy games. I remember in FF7 when I acquired the Knights of the Round materia + quadraple materia I swept everything in my way. lol In Castlevania: Symphony of the Night I also applied the same tactic. Even in Demon's Souls up to some point. But in Dark Souls this doesn't seem enough. I'm lv 60 but if I'm caught off guard, I can easily get killed even by mobs, frogs, rats, when being cornered.

Yah you can still get ganged up on which is what always keeps you on your toes but 1 on 1 - whatever. Can't wait till I face Black Knights and I don't have to kinda play it safe. I'm already starting to get a bit more aggressive with them but their weapons just kill my stamina.

Seriously though - just leave the Stray Demon and get on with your game. It's sometimes hard to let go - you will come back with awesome weapons and it will feel so much better when you kill his fat ass. Once I was sitting around trying to co op Gaping Dragon and then Quelaag with people. Just browsing the net waiting for my screen to finally show I'm getting summoned. Then I realized, here I am, I got a few hours left till I gotta go to sleep before work the next day, and I'm sitting around for 40 minutes now trying to get summoned. I just dropped it and started playing the game. If I didn't actively force myself to call it quits I'd still be in that area with the same gear, not making any progress.

I just beat him tonight. I have my lvl 65 Knight/Pyromancer. I tried used the moonlight shield to quickly kill him. I was getting over 1000 dmg, but the charge time caused me to get hit, or if i blocked, the attacked would go right through my shield. So, I finally gave up, and switched to Havel's armor and a different shield, and I slaughtered him with my Lighting Zweihander +2. Worked better than I thought it would. :D

@Kyelb22 said:

I just beat him tonight. I have my lvl 65 Knight/Pyromancer. I tried used the moonlight shield to quickly kill him. I was getting over 1000 dmg, but the charge time caused me to get hit, or if i blocked, the attacked would go right through my shield. So, I finally gave up, and switched to Havel's armor and a different shield, and I slaughtered him with my Lighting Zweihander +2. Worked better than I thought it would. :D

"slaughtered him" lmao! yeah, I'm looking forward to slaughter him soon myself too. lol

Just killed him on my Lv25 Knight, just standing behind him at all times and attacking after he smashed the ground with his AoE attack. Just try to stay behind him at all times and play safe only attacking whenever you're sure he won't get you. You can do it! :D

Iron Flesh made him a joke.

Last night I cleaned out the Asylum, did a ton of farming, crow trading, and capped off Stray too. At SL 22. ^_^

Praise the Sun.

I definitely owe it to EpicNameBro's videos, or I would not believe it could be done. I'm proud to say after 20-30 attempts, the time that I DID kill him I did not get hit ONCE. :D (That's a bit of puffery, because most hits are one-shot when you're running around half naked.)

I will create a low-level-Drake guide, and folks can add in their higher level / class strategies to it.

I just stay close to him while constantly circling him. If you stay close enough he'll do one of two attacks: the "butt smash" or big magic aoe burst. When he begins either attack just back away and the move in to attack, rinse and repeat.

I'm going to attempt him tonight. I'm level 71 , with about 330 defense vs. physical and under 50% equip load with a dex based character with high endurance. I'm using the chaos blade +5 and longbow +10 but I'm guessing the longbow is useless in this fight... So I look forward to being totally owned later on!

The stray demon is as simple as he comes. He attacks in a sweep so stay behind. He has a ranged attack ONLY if your ranged. He will spin around and slam the ground. Back up and run behind. If you follow these easy steps, you too can beat the *Demon's Souls* & *Dark Souls* Tutorial boss.

@xyzygy said:

I'm going to attempt him tonight. I'm level 71 , with about 330 defense vs. physical and under 50% equip load with a dex based character with high endurance. I'm using the chaos blade +5 and longbow +10 but I'm guessing the longbow is useless in this fight... So I look forward to being totally owned later on!

I don't think you will have problem at so high level. Just remember to always stay behind him and you will be okay.

Yea I just beat him a few hours ago. Died maybe 10 or so times before I realised that the fight was actually pretty easy and not as insanely hard as I first thought. Just chipping away doing 80dmg per two handed strike was kinda annoying but I'm only at lvl30 and I can say that it's probably the easiest 20k souls I've gotten :P. If you're doing it right he should only be doing two attacks. One where he raises his giant axe or whatever he's got and strikes the grown resulting in that blast wave. This has got a pretty big tell and it takes him ages to do it so now's the time to run a few steps back (one roll should really do it if you can spare the stamina) and down an estus if you need to. The other 'attack' he does is the flying up thingy so he can reorientate himself and smack down on his arse. If you're locked on to this guy this is the bit that freaks with the camera, and because he's so big you probably shouldn't need to lock on anyway. I found the best way to avoid this is simply to run in front of him as he's falling and then roll back into him for his next slash+blast wave. So yea after every one of his attacks just lay into him either with spells or melee. Personally I don't see how you can kill him from range, so if that's what you're trying to do it probably wont work. Just get pretty intimate with his rear when you're trying to attack and you should last. I used up all my estus flasks in the first half of his health and I still managed to down him once it kinda clicked. I see myself as a pretty shitty Dark Souls player so I'm pretty sure once you understand his attacks you'll be able to do it.

Have to say though the Undead Asylum was really the first time I actually managed to understand tactics. Those Black Knights killed me almost as much as this guy. The three Black Knights from Undead Burg/Parish and Darkroot Basin I managed to kill by Soul Arrow as they retreated or got stuck, but this was the first time I actually fought them head on in those narrow corridors. Pretty easy fights in the end but at the start they just demoralised me...

I dunno why people put themselves through this fight early in the game. I returned to the Asylum shortly before finishing the game, by which point Stray Demon was a complete pushover.